Halo 3 Beta: Another Take

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Is it more than just Halo 2.5?

By Erik Brudvig

A while back I wrote an editorial questioning how well the Halo 3 Beta would be received. This is the first time the general public has seen the game in motion on its own terms and not through the filtered eyes of marketing promos. Based on the reactions on the message boards and e-mails we've received, it seems that many people had built Halo 3 into something it isn't and may never be. As it turns out, all of the Bungie.net updates telling the world how much better the game is looking mean little when the goods are on the table for all to see.

No, the Halo 3 beta does not look as good as Gears of War. It's unlikely the final game will either. The fast paced nature of Halo 3, larger environments, and having more people in a match at once makes Gears of War type graphics seem out of reach. Obviously, the final game will look a little better than what you see now in the beta. One only has to look at the fact that the recently released Halo 2 maps are more detailed than those in the Halo 3 beta for reassurance of that.

Let's put aside all of the griping over graphics. After all, this is still an unfinished game we're looking at, not a demo. Things will change before this fall's release, both in terms of how the game plays and how it looks. What's more, Bungie is obviously holding back on features, modes, and other goodies. Instead of focusing on what's not there, let's take a look at what is. Besides, after about ten minutes of playing the Halo 3 beta, you'll forget all about the graphics when the fun starts kicking in.

The changes made between Halo 2's multiplayer experience and the Halo 3 beta are not so drastic that it feels like a whole new game. In fact, the beta largely feels like an extension of Halo 2 rather than a whole new game. The new tools like the portable grav lift, the bubble shield, and the man cannon add a whole new dimension to the gameplay that makes the fast paced Halo game even more frantic, but it's the subtle improvements that make the beta so engrossing and promising.

The new spikers are the perfect weapon for wannabe pirates.

The environments in the Halo 3 beta don't have the level of visual detail those with Xbox 360's are used to just yet, but the environmental effects are already starting to show. Water behaves like water with realistic looking waves and interactions. Ride a Mongoose through a river and you'll find your ride slowed to a crawl. If you get killed and land in water, you'll float. If your camera rotates under water, the sound changes to reflect it. The same goes for snow. Running across it will create tracks. Tossing a frag grenade into a snow bank will cause it to sink in rather than bounce.

These are small additions, to be sure. But these changes are present in every aspect of the Halo 3 beta. Weapons have been tweaked to be more balanced. The needler is actually effective now and the reintroduction of the assault rifle along with the increased potency of grenades makes medium and close range combat much more interesting. The physics have been improved and the rag dolls are looking more realistic. The fast Mongoose makes large maps more accessible and less tedious. The charged plasma pistol can melt metal including that on vehicles making room for another technique to stop a marauding Warthog.

This list of the small improvements that have been made for the Halo 3 beta could go on and on ad nauseam. The end result, though, is that even at this unfinished stage the beta feels like the Halo multiplayer game we all wanted in the second installment. Bungie has clearly listened to the feedback they've received and worked to combine the best parts of the first two games while adding a few new tricks for the finale. This direction won't make for any drastic changes, but with two great predecessors any big departure would be a bit of a disappointment anyhow.

Now you can save your bets moments and share them with the world.

Let's not forget about the community tools that Bungie pulled off so admirably in Halo 2. The beta includes just a small teaser of what's to come in a video save feature, some limited matchmaking, and a tweaked ranking system. The video save feature is probably the greatest community tool added to a console game yet. In the beta, you can save any match you just played and then either upload it to share with everyone or simply send it to a friend. Once this is released to the community with some editing tools we are going to be in for a serious treat.

With the new tools and weapons, these small tweaks add up to make one seriously fun game. If you loved Halo 1 and 2, you can only see the beta as signs of more goodness to arrive this fall. It may not be the best looking game on the market, but the beta already plays at a level that is just plain enjoyable. I hope those in agony over the underwhelming screenshots are sophisticated enough to see that.